by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 30, 1997

Speaking of his ex-colleague Justice William O. Douglas, the defiant jurist piped, “I’m going to break Douglas’ record!” Douglas had served 35 years. Then, William Brennan laughed. Our little exchange took place at a Gridiron Dinner a decade ago.

Brennan died last week. He served for 34 years after Eisenhower chose the Irish Democrat to help win the Catholic vote in 1956. Ike would later describe Brennan and Chief Justice Earl Warren as two of the biggest mistakes of his presidency.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 29, 1997

“If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you,” Christ warned his disciples, who came to learn the truth of his words. Eleven of the 12 sent out to preach the Gospel after Pentecost died a martyr’s death witnessing to the truth that he was the Son of God and had a claim to man’s obedience and allegiance even greater than Caesar’s.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 22, 1997

The coup de farce intended to topple Speaker Newt, in which faithful lieutenants betrayed him, only to re-embrace their beloved leader, has the makings of a Broadway comedy.

Unfortunately, the farce is also a tragedy.

A great party, for whose principles good people have worked their whole lives, has been abused by those accorded its highest honors. The House leaders have done what Bill Clinton could not do. They have made the party of Ronald Reagan look ridiculous.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 14, 1997

These are truly the dog days of the Republican Party.

Successive national tickets have been defeated by Bill Clinton as convincingly as the GOP Congress has been cowed. If the incoming mail of one writer on public affairs is a reliable barometer of public sentiment, the party is in trouble — for that mail is full of anger, despair and derision for the Republican leadership.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 9, 1997

On this year’s centennial of the inauguration of William McKinley, Ohio University professor Alfred E. Eckes, a trade official under Ronald Reagan, addressed Ohio’s Historical Society. Subject: our 25th president, assassinated by an anarchist in Buffalo in 1901. McKinley’s was a truly extraordinary presidency.

A teenager at Antietam and Civil War veteran of four years fighting, McKinley took over a nation still wracked by the Panic of 1893. To restore prosperity, he raised tariffs, taxing imports rather than workers, and gave America an annual growth rate of 7 percent!

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 8, 1997

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is counsel Bill Clinton should have followed before making his frivolous decision to expand NATO into Eastern Europe. For it is clear that NATO expansion is already dividing, and may eventually destroy, the great Western alliance.

Handing out war guarantees to parts of Europe where we have never fought before reflects the substitution of sentimentality for hard thought. There is no vital U.S. interest where we are, right now, being committed to fight. Clinton is treating a military alliance like a country club, which, thanks to his magnanimity, is finally opening its doors to excluded minorities.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 2, 1997

As another anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is upon us, it is fair to ask: What would the men of ‘76 think of us?

While they would surely be awed by America’s size, wealth and power, I suspect they would be unimpressed with our leaders and alarmed at our course.

The independence they won at immense sacrifice was, after all, an economic as well as a political independence. Yet our leaders are deliberately increasing our dependency on a global economy. Total trade — less than a tenth of gross national product for generations — is now 23 percent and projected to reach 36 percent by 2010. America will then cease to be a truly independent nation.

by Patrick J. Buchanan – July 1, 1997

A week ago, Bill Clinton invited a dozen African American columnists to the White House to brief them on his racial goals. “We want to become a multiracial, multiethnic society,” the president confided. “This will arguably be the third great revolution …. to prove that we literally can live without … having a dominant European culture.”

Clinton then headed west to exult in the fact that California’s white folks are about to lose their majority status: “Within the next three years here in California, no single race or ethnic group will make up a majority of the state’s population. … A half century from now, there will be no majority race in America.”